Example based texture synthesis is one of the most versatile, powerful, and widely used techniques in image processing. A pattern exemplar may be synthesized into a high quality texture of arbitrary size, which may then be utilized for image or video modification, noise reduction, three-dimensional texture mapping, and other image processing tasks.
Example based texture synthesis may also be used to produce texture compositions in which distinct texture patterns are blended using techniques such as texture by numbers (TBN). TBN allows artists to define texture areas so as to produce high quality, visually consistent renderings. However, TBN can only reproduce patterns and transitions among patterns that are present in an exemplar provided as an input to the TBN process. Consequently, an artist must typically prepare not only an input exemplar containing all desired texture patterns, the artist must ensure that all transitions among the patterns in all desired directions are present in the input exemplar as well. Due to the burden imposed by manual preparation of these input exemplars, artists have been reluctant to adopt TBN for synthesis of texture compositions despite its potential advantages.